Phase One releases Capture One 12 with new interface, third-party plug-in support

Phase One has released Capture One 12, the latest edition of its image editing software. The updated product features a redesigned interface, revamped menu aligned between the Mac and Windows versions, linear and gradient masks via the new Parametric Masking Engine, luminosity masking and a new plug-in ecosystem.

Capture One 12's new plug-in ecosystem supports third-party extensions and will soon have access to plug-ins for sharing and editing, as well as connecting the software to "specialized editing tools," according to the company. Phase One's Capture One Plugin SDK enables developers to create their own plug-ins for the software.

The updated product also adds new Fujifilm Film Simulation, lens, and camera support, expands AppleScript support for macOS users, and features a redesigned keyboard shortcut manager. Capture One 12 supports more than 500 camera models across all major brands.

Phase One is offering Capture One 12 with a perpetual license to new customers for $299 USD, but existing customers can purchase the update starting at $149 USD. Alternatively, the company offers Capture One Pro Sony 12 and Capture One Pro Fujifilm 12 for $219 USD. Buyers also have a subscription option starting at $15/month for Capture One Pro 12 and $14/month for the Fuji and Sony editions.

Redesigned and reimagined for the needs of today’s creatives, expanding for tomorrow’s solutions

COPENHAGEN, November 29, 2018: Phase One, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end digital camera systems, today released Capture One 12, the next major milestone in the evolution of the industry’s premier RAW conversion, image editing, and asset management software. This release takes a top-down approach to streamline, modernizing, and improving the user interface to continue the program’s tradition of providing powerful features in a customizable, uniquely-configurable interface.

New masking tools and improved workflow features continue Capture One’s tradition of providing the most powerful image editing tools available, while a new plug-in ecosystem will allow third-party developers to connect their services and applications to Capture One.

Capture One 12 furthers Phase One’s commitment to providing unparalleled RAW editing, with unmatched tethering, color handling and precise editing on images captured with any of more than 500 different camera models.

Capture One 11.3 introduced support for all Fujifilm cameras and their unique sensors. Capture One 12 now enhances that support with the ability to correctly read and interpret Fujifilm’s legendary Film Simulations.

“Capture One has long been recognized as the industry standard for RAW image editing and image management,” says Jan Hyldebrandt-Larsen, VP Software Business at Phase One. “With this update, we focused on creative control — updating and improving the user interface, adding powerful new masking tools, and extending the Capture One ecosystem through plug-in support. These updates further our commitment to ensuring that Capture One continues to be the industry’s recognized leader in accuracy, performance, and customizability.”

Capture One 12 introduces a newly re-designed, contemporary interface, designed to make Capture One easier to use during long editing sessions and to make discovery, experimentation, and customizability easier than ever. New iconography better conveys tool functionality, and the new slider design, the spacing of the tools, and font size increase improves both the look and the usability of the program.

The result is a new environment that feels more welcoming for new users while being more customizable for power-users.

Revamped menu system

Every menu item in Capture One 12 has been evaluated, categorized, and organized according to its logical function and grouped along with associated tasks, which makes it easier to find the desired controls and settings, and brings the Mac and Windows menu options into alignment.

Luminosity masking

One of a trio of new masking tools, Luma Range allows users to quickly create masks based on the brightness of pixels in an image and is the most powerful luminance masking tool of its kind.

This masking technique is particularly powerful in landscapes and high-key portraits, as it allows for nearly-instantaneous masks in complex scenes based on brightness—eliminating the need to tediously paint complex masks. Once a luminance range is created and adjusted using the precision mask-adjustment tools, nearly any editing tool can be applied to the mask.

The masks created with the Luma Range tool are dynamic and can easily be tweaked and modified at any point in the workflow. Unlike a hand-drawn mask, Luma Range adjustments can be applied from one image to another, and the effect will be based on the luminance of each image. This functionality is a huge time-saver as it eliminates the need to create precision masks for each frame in a shoot.

The new Luma Range selection masks open up an incredible range of editing possibilities, from selective noise reduction to precise color grading.

Linear Gradient Mask

Capture One 12 takes gradient masks to the next level, allowing for editable, moveable, rotatable—and best of all—asymmetric gradient masks. Using a brand-new Parametric Masking Engine, Capture One allows for adjustments in the size, shape, and symmetry of the masks with simple mouse clicks and key presses, truly redefining the possibilities of linear gradients in Capture One. Rotate, feather and adjust a mask with a precision never before possible.

Radial Gradient Mask

The new Radial Gradient mask tool enables quick, flexible radial masks, useful for vignette and other adjustments with a desired falloff effect. Using the same Parametric Masking Engine as the Linear Gradient mask tool, radial masks can be adjusted, rotated and moved after creation for extreme control over desired effects.

Redesigned Keyboard Shortcut manager

Capture One is known for its ability to custom-assign and custom-configure virtually every task to a keyboard shortcut. With more than 500 individually-assignable and customizable commands, it’s essential to be able to find the exact shortcut, without having to hunt through hundreds of choices.

Users can now search by the specific menu command, or by the assigned keyboard shortcut, making it easy to find and manage shortcuts. To unify the interface between the Mac and Windows versions the new menu system has been moved to the same location on both platforms, making it easier for workgroups to stay in sync.

New plug-in ecosystem

To address the needs of photographers and creatives looking to share, edit and collaborate on their images, the new Capture One plug-in ecosystem will allow for powerful third-party extensions. The new Capture One SDK will allow any developer to create custom solutions to expand Capture One, and to transform Capture One into an open ecosystem.

Users of Capture One will be able to extend the platform with the upcoming addition of plug-ins that allow for sharing, editing, and that can connect Capture One to a variety of specialized editing tools.

For developers, the Capture One Plugin SDK—available as a free download—will provide access to the broad base of passionate professional and enthusiast photographers that use Capture One. Developers are now able to create solutions that leverage the image-editing and organizational prowess of Capture One, and the added capabilities of third-party resources.

The initial Capture One Plugin SDK allows for plugin development, and can be leveraged for common tasks like sharing, sending files to external editors, and allowing images to be opened in other applications, and more.

Fujifilm Film Simulation support

Fujifilm X-Series and GFX-series cameras feature Film Simulations, which are in-camera tonal adjustments that faithfully reproduce the color and tonality of classic Fujifilm photographic films. Sixteen Film Simulations are available, ranging from color stocks like Provia and Velvia to black and white film like Acros. These simulations give Fujifilm users the ability to digitally capture images with the feel of beloved photographic films.

Thanks to the collaboration between Capture One and Fujifilm, photographer’s using Fujifilm’s renowned X-Series and GFX-series cameras will be able to edit photos complete with Fujifilm Film Simulations. These in-camera settings have been faithfully reproduced in Capture One, to provide an identical experience when working with files, resulting in images that appear the same as if the Film Simulation picture profiles were applied in-camera.

Extended AppleScript support

Users of Capture One on Mac OS can take advantage of extended AppleScript support for automation and workflow streamlining. More than a dozen of Capture One 12’s areas and properties can now be directly modified with AppleScript, adding to the existing, robust AppleScript support in previous versions of Capture One.

New camera and lens support

Capture One provides users with the most accurate and powerful image editing available, and the wide-ranging support of cameras and lenses is a hallmark of the software. For enthusiasts and professionals alike, Capture One continually evolves to handle the newest cameras and lenses.

Phase One carefully evaluates and interprets each camera’s RAW formats, allowing Capture One to present images with the utmost fidelity, often bringing out nuances that other programs can’t even perceive.

In addition to the RAW support for more than 500 cameras, Capture One also provides profiling and image correction support for more than 500 lenses. Like with the RAW file interpretation, Phase One carefully measures the optical characteristics of each supported lens and builds correction algorithms that compensate for the various optical imperfections of various designs. As a result, Capture One can correct for numerous common optical issues such as vignette, and chromatic aberration as needed for each of the supported lenses.

Capture One is available in several versions. Capture One Pro 12 supports more than 500 cameras from all major camera brands, while Capture One Pro Sony 12 and Capture One Pro Fujifilm 12 supports cameras from those brands, respectively.

Phase One is committed to providing customers a choice when it comes to how they acquire their software, so Capture One Pro 12 is available for purchase, or via subscription. The perpetual license for Capture One Pro 12 is available for $299, with upgrade pricing from previous versions starting at $149. Capture One Pro Sony and Capture One Pro Fujifilm are available for $219

For those that prefer subscription models, Capture One Pro 12 is available for plans as low as $15 per month, and Capture One Pro Sony and Capture One Pro Fujifilm subscription plans start at $14 a month.

For a complete list of all products and licensing options, please visit: www.phaseone.com/store to learn more.

Comments

I'm an amateur with two Fuji cameras for which Capture One is a great Raw converter. I have become reasonably familiar with C1 v11 over the last 11 months and was ready to upgrade to v12, but the increase price of the upgrade annoyed me when I tried to match it to the contents of the new version. It's just not worth it for someone like me.

But . . . if SmugMug wrote a plugin to work with v12 so that my uploads could be relatively seamless (not having to Export images to upload to SmugMug) I might reconsider.

Finally, it's a bit strange that Phase One has warned that all discount codes will become invalid on 1 January . . .

I would probably switch to Capture if it wasn't for two brilliant assets of Adobe. The ability to stich a pano in LR quick and easy with a faultless result and the upscaling in Photoshop is just phenomenal providing you have a first class original. Just dial in any size output you like and the resilts are unbelievable. My 18mp 1DX upsizes better with a prime lens on than a 36mp with zoom. Leica Q looks every bit as good as a Sony RX1 II for big prints. Those two alone make the Adobe solution my choice, even if Capture might be a tad better with colour.

One of the huge benefits with Capture One Pro that not so many talk of is the speed. For me I spend a lot of time in going through pictures to find the good ones. In Lightroom this would be a very frustrating experience but it is very fast in Lightroom. Especially if you have a fast computer Capture One scaled.Some benchmarks I have done:Opening a random image at 100% zoom (emulating that you click and zoom in).- Lightroom. About 6-10 seconds. - Capture one 0.4 seconds. This is about 20x.

Stats. 50megapixel raw images from Canon 5DSR. 28 CPU cores 3.1GHz, Titan card.In Lightroom you can have the processing of the image faster. The lowest I have measured is 4-5s which was using a highly clocked 4 core computer but we work with video so always have many cores and Lightroom does not use many cores well.

Also in Capture one you can have a second withows that is 100% zoom in. I h ave this on the second screen while the main screen shows the full image. This makes it easy to check focus and composition together.

A few things I miss in Capture One that lightroom has- better chromatic abberation correction- Pano and HDR stitching, but I rarely use them.- Lightroom is more stable

Things I like better in Capture One- The speed of course, Sharpening with structure, convolution sharpening that Lightroom does not have, color wheels, the export is fantastic since you can do multiple exports simulaneously, film grain is way better, the layers are great, the painting is great and very fast. Also Capture One is upgraded more often.

However I rarely do my edits in Capture One and Lightroom any more, but do them in Photoshop since I use several powerful plugins like Neat Image, Topaz Detail, Magic Sharpen etc.

I find I can use plugins with C1 v11 without PS. Instead I installed an inexpensive programme called PhotoLine, and access plug-ins by "editing with" that programme. After editing with Topaz Detail for example, images are automatically reintroduced to C1 as TIFFs when saved.F.

"UpgradingThere are now more upgrade options for perpetual licenses. The limitation of upgrading from up to 2 versions back (10/11 > 12) is lifted. You now have the option to upgrade from Capture One Pro 9 and older to 12.

PricingUpgrade pricing now varies based on the version you upgrade from. Users who upgrade from Capture One Pro 11 pay the lowest fee. Capture One Pro 10 upgraders pay a bit more. Upgrading from version 9 and older is possible now for a slightly higher upgrade price.

I think this policy is fair for both frequent and less frequent upgraders and nobody is out of luck anymore."

Great research. Could we please have the upgrade fees from each version?

Phase One clearly have panicked that they've driven past owners away from C1 completely (and for good reason - I'm one such person). Still no upgrade pricing for owners of Sony Pro 10. I bought into the C1 system at €60 for my Sony cameras. To learn that I'm expected to pay €220 for new Sony versions going forward is simple bait and switch.

After ten years owning various Phase One software, I trust them less than even Adobe (and that takes some doing as I loathe subscription software). Adobe is a vampire but is up front about it. The photographer package (especially on an annual discount package) offers astonishingly good value. C1 in my opinion does not. DxO PhotoLab 2 offers much better high ISO results, faster workflow and has about a €70 per year upgrade penalty with little pressure to upgrade. Iridient Developer offers 18 months of upgrades for $99 with 40% off on next 18 months.

I own Sony Pro 9. If I go to my account panel, it shows that 1 free upgrade is available (weird naming). If I go to the upgrade pricing section after I logon, it already shows my Sony Pro 9 product with a €135 upgrade price, upgrading to the full version is €229 versus €349 regular pricing. I would say that is acceptable, but still relatively high (+/- 2 years of Lightroom, especially if you buy on Amazon during Black Friday for around €90 euro/year subscription).

BTW, I like DxO a lot too. But nobody knows if they will be afloat next year, while you can safely bet Adobe and Phase One will be around in 10 years time (in the worst case scenario they will be acquired by an even bigger tech company). This is why the main stable choice has always been Lightroom vs Capture One.

Personally, I don’t understand the complaints about the price. In the USA the upgrade price works out to less than $13 a month. Any halfway decent photographer has thousands of dollars in camera and lenses. This is a drop in the bucket. Although as an observation, we have the same issue in bicycle racing in the USA. Racer’s will have several thousands in bikes, clothing, and equipment. Yet the complain about $35 to enter a race when it used to be $20. Now that I think of it, people complain wen gas prices go up 10 cents but they just bought a gas guzzler SUB. Same with the new iPhones too.

The lesson is people complain about price icreases for anything. This is nothing new. But it is kinda fun reading the complaints about it. Sell one more photo a month, race faster so you win more prize money , drive a more fuel efficient car. Or stick with your old phone. It’s that easy.

First - people in Europe pay 20% higher prices on what you get in US, plus they pay VAT (around 20% to 24% in most countries) in addition, which you do not have in US.

Second - I'm not a pro photographer, I do not earn any money with my photography and all my gear is bough used. You can peek at my gear, see what portion of it is supported by C1P, then look and the eBay prices and do the math.

Third - I'm paid one fifth of the same amount of money a person with my job will get in the US. And I'm relatively well being in Europe, because people in Africa and Asia will be worse than that.

So, I understand you have your first world problems, e.g. should you buy iPhone X or XS, but for the rest of the world, paying $203 a year (all in) on a upgrades that bring no functional improvement, but camera support, new UI skin, and Plugins-SDK that is meant to mantain their market share anyway.

I really struggle to understand this usual "if you spent that much for this you won't have problems with that". It's not that if I got an A7Riii then I have to be happy throwing my money out of my window, or having to spend as much as a developer wants me to spend without looking around. If they're going to be successful with this new price system, good for them, but there are other solutions which aren't far away in terms of final image quality while costing much less, especially in Europe.

@fafner - I agree. It's an old argument and it doesn't add up. Anyway, A lot of professional photographers hire equipment because of cashflow amongst other things, so extra expense is being looked at closely. The job pays for the hire or the camera, so the photographer never has to pay the money for camera upgrades etc. At least this is what happens for Phase One backs and so on, but also for high end DSLRs, and no doubt Mirrorless now too.

I know, I know... Then why don't you just charge more to pay for the software? - It's not the point. Why do anything?

It's a choice:

C1 does this, it's very good at it, and it costs £20+Vat per month.LR Does the same thing, some things are as good, some things aren't, some things are better, but it's part of the PS subscription and it costs £10.

If you use Photoshop and you Use C1Pro, that's £30 per month and Lightroom is collecting dust in your applications folder left unused.

Love these replies. Yes, I live in the first world so maybe I don't understand. But I make my coffee at home or buy it at McDonald's. I avoid Starbucks because paying $5 for a coffee is crazy (Please don't hate me my Italian friends.) But this software? It cost me less than five McDonald's coffees a month. If you've got software you feel does better, or is easier to use, go for it. If you don't like C1 Pro's pricing, don't buy it. I don't go around whining over Starbucks. I just don't buy it. And for the price to upgrade for the cost of equipment? A cheep plastic lens is going to cost you more than 2-3 upgrades of C1Pro. If you're using a Nikon 3500 with a DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G NIKKOR lens, then C1 Pro is not right for you. But then why are you on this site whining about it? There's this thing in cycling called, "The Rules." The Rules come from Velominati. Read Rule #5, then watch the video that goes with it. That is the lesson you need to take home boys. Move along.

I don't like coffee, so I can't relate. I'm not into cycling either - I know too many people who are profoundly excited about cycling themselves or watching other people cycle, and they are the most boring people to talk to.

To answer your question: we're on this site whining about photography stuff because it's a photography site about photography stuff.

Why aren't you outside somewhere up or down a hill 'living it' on your bi-cylce?

DxO faceplanted with their hardware camera for iPhones the DxO One. The hardware is off the books now and the software team for DxO PhotoLab are working very actively and have a sustainable business in RAW development software. There's nothing like Prime DeNoise and there's nothing faster for large sets than the automated adjustments in DxO PhotoLab.

The lens testing website is also a separate company now. That side of the business does seem to face ongoing issues as DxO Mark has stopped testing new lenses. My only serious concern with DxO PhotoLab is how the absence of DxO Mark will affect their ability to offer deep support for new lenses and cameras. Superficial support based on specifications is not the issue - just the manual testing across all apertures and adding to the database based on field results.

Years ago, I paid for the NIK plugins which was bought by Google, then was given away free...until DXO bought the NIK plugins, “integrated” them into their software, then started charging for the plugins

Except there was nothing added to the plugins, no improvement, no optimization

DXO just added a payment verification system and started charging money for it

I wondered why people will pay for something which was given away for free

Actually I was miffed when it was given away for free after I paid full price for them

The NIK plugin situation is a mess I agree. I bought the original plugins when they were for sale. Then had to endure Google giving them away. I'm using (very occasionally - Color Efex - amazing software) in the free version in CS6 now. When DxO had their Black Friday sale, I did buy the NIK plugins again in the hope that DxO will improve the Affinity Photo compatibility. Would not have paid full price based on current improvements though.

The Control Point technology in PhotoLab 2 is amazing so it's not as if DxO has not done some good work with NIK technology and is not preparing to do more with it.

I believe DxO had to make the free versions available again, as is, per the original release license.

I didn’t see anything about any NIK plugin development—just that new installer with payment verification system or it won’t work. It takes a lot of chutzpah to charge for something they didn’t add to nor improve.

I also bought a Photolab 2 license. I don’t use the U Point Technology, the radial area of effect is very limiting for me.

I’m now leaning towards Capture One Pro for the bulk of my processing needs, as Lightroom gets long in the tooth and DXO stays the same—I can’t even remember the supposed improvements in the latest Photolab 2...something about faster processing and better PRIME noise reduction?

I had been using Capture One Pro for more than a decade—when I couldn’t afford it and had to work on a borrowed PC. I went to Lightroom as it was more affordable, then later bought my own Capture One Pro license. I am impressed with what they did with color editor, specifically skin tone editor. I hope to find time to delve into these new features soon.

Perhaps DxO would credit your NIK purchase against a purchase of other DxO software which suits your needs better? DxO NIK was an afterthought for me to nudge DxO to continue to improve NIK compatibility with Affinity Photo and modern graphic cards. The real gem is PhotoLab 2 Elite with Prime Denoise (even DxO Perspective 3 and DxO FilmPack 5 are not really necessary as they duplicate functionality in NIK and/or a bitmap editor). After considerable hesitation I bought those two to allow me a faster workflow on events (no need to go to an external editor for perspective or deep colour options).

@UncoyDP... but you would still need Lightroom/Photoshop to use them properly right? I really miss integration with DxO PhotoLab of those powerful tools. I want fewer not more tools in my photography workflow.

That knowledge base article is not hard to find. Google and DuckDuckGo will find it for you as will any search of DxO support.

Kenneth, DxO rescued Nik plugins from disappearing completely from the market. DxO is charging 1/8 of what Nik originally charged ($500) for the set. There's no monthly subscription. It seems to me you are really overreacting here - it was a $69 one time purchase and the software does work, albeit compatibility with the popular Affinity Photo could be better (and hopefully will be by mid-2019). When on sale (happens a few times/year), DxO's Nik Collection is $50 or less.

C1 users are upset about the price hike. I a LR user upset about the subscription model and I was considering jumping ship. But there is no real ship to jump onto that has DAM, solid converter, convenient price. I am still on LR 6 but I will have eventually have to upgrade to LR CC's subscription model. Without third party software I feel choosing a software is like voting at a US election with a 2 party system.

Hey, Photoshop was priced around $799 when it was a stand-alone product. Photography plan is now $100 per year and includes Lightroom, XD, Ligthroom Classic, 20GB cloud storage, and a Premiere-branded Video App. Paying subscription, break-even is reached between 8 and 10 years, depending on how you price extra content beyond Photoshop. There is quite a lot more functionality than C1P for less money.

C1P is $300 to begin with, then $150 each year for cosmetic updates and adding camera support. With their cloud subscription, break-even is around 2 years and there is no discount for existing users - switching from perpetual to subscription is a total waste of money.

yeah a bit crazy. $150/year upgrade - but $180/year subscription with the 6 style packs ($350+ for upgrade V11 to V12 with style packs) you can do 2 years subscription for 1 upgrade of style packs or slightly more per year subscription. Looks like they are gonna start pushing that subscription model pretty soon via pricing.

ACDSee is a huge step back from Lightroom/Capture One, in addition to being Windows only and more bloated in terms of user experience. I would say it is B-grade software. It can produce good results sure, but it's just not in the A league with Adobe Lightroom, Capture One and DxO PhotoLab.

In general C1 is improving quite slowly. They’re very good at marketing each new release as being a major upgrade, but that’s not what I’m seeing. The improvements year-on-year are quite minor and iterative in the scheme of things.

For example, I see absolutely no difference to the raw converter since version 10 and probably even earlier. Comparing a RAW file with a basic exposure boost, anti-vignette and minor highlight recovery the results are identical to version 10. I suppose this is a good thing since I liked C1’s output already and they’re not going backwards, but it just goes to show that if you think upgrading your processing to the new engine will yield any changes; well they’ll likely be extremely minimal or non-existent.

The upgrade prices are very expensive for the improvements you get. For many pros the cost is irrelevant, but keen amateurs or occasional casual photographers will have pause to question.

I agree. They’ve bizarrely avoided some of their most common requests and glaring omissions. For the money they’re charging I’d like to see some more significant additions and improvements,

For example, I’d Like to see HDR and focus stacking processors added. C1 can already show a focus mask so it seems like not too much more work for them to implement a focus stacking tool. Likewise HDR. These are two very common procedures, so not only would I like to see C1’s results (and quality) compared to the competition, but anything that can save time on a round-trip to other software would be very welcome.

@moTmeN The History Palette allows you to iterate multiple steps at a time. The History Palette allows you to jump back back and forth (for example) 5 steps at once to compare two alternate interpretations of the image. It also helps you confirm where you are and what you've done as you've proceeded through the editing process. And, no, there isn't a work around in C1. This isn't just a matter of being able to backup to the initial rendering using "undo". It's about being able to jump to any point in the editing process in one step. I use both Lr and C1 but primarily Lr for this reason.

If you are in photography business making a livelihood from taking pictures and you have "dig" under the skin of CaputureOne, then you know there is NO other software which may come close. Period. Sp, this latest version, version 12 is absolutely BEST there is...

If you disagree with me educatece your self before posting any criticism about this latest version of C1.

RPJG he is right, Capture One is the best with nothing coming close. End of Story.

It might be too expensive for some people, it might not fit in the workflow of others. But when it comes to quality and capability there is nothing else. I had a lot of freelancers trying to convince me that Lightroom is just as good when one knows what he is doing. I let them try it but they couldn't come close to the requirements. They downloaded the Capture One Trail and suddenly the quality was as expected.

I know Photographers in poor countries where this is one months salary and they bought it, in fact I know not one Photographer who has tried and not bought it. But that's just the people I know it might be different when the best quality fast is not a requirement.

The point is, there isn't a "best", because the best is subjective and/or dependent on the source gear. So when I see pompous posts on here saying "I'm right and everyone else is wrong", I have to laugh and respond.

You started with "If you disagree with me educatece your self before posting any criticism ..."Then quickly contradicted yourself ... " ... to know that different photographers with different cameras/sensors have different views on what is "best".".

The truth is that there are numerous excellent image editing packages out there, and what might be the best and the greatest for you can be the worst and the most cumbersome for some others.Personally, I have tried Capture One many times over the years, and different versions of it, but I just couldn't like it at all. So there ... I do disagree with you, and I said it out loud.

Relax my friend, enjoy Capture One, but keep an open mind. The world has other, different opinions. It doesn't matter if like them or not.

... pro-photographers they don't brows DPreview, they don't have time to do so. This site belongs to enthusiasts even thou I'm not saying that this software C1 v12 is not inexpensive... therefore opinions in this post are one-sided.

OBI656: Huh? Opinions on DPR are all over the shop. Which is as it should be, given the mostly subjective nature of the topic(s), and the fact that there obviously *are* pro photographers here. Are you just saying that as justification for your seemingly absolutist view?

sh10453: I think you might have mixed up parts of the reply from me and OBI656.

RPJG, well of course if you work with Leica S or Hasselblad Capture One is not the best but will not work. And as I said different people prefer different workflows but from a technological point of view one yet has to show me one Software that beats the image quality of Capture One Pro.And I wouldn't say this if I hadn't tried all other RAW converters that I knew of.

> RPJG he is right, Capture One is the best with nothing coming close. End of Story.

Really.

I've always found C1 to be quite mediocre for the price. Which is why I gave it 1 star. C1/11's color rendering engine was significantly worse than C1/10. And C1/10's color rendering engine was nothing to write home about.

Try getting Velvia-type colors and saturation with C1 - any version. You can't.

Capture One's noise reduction could still do with a lot of work. Once I found out how it was handling my files compared to other RAW processors I was disappointed. Still using it now but the engine they have needs a lot of work. DxO still performs better but I don't want to use DxO :(

What a ridiculous statement. Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab produce similar results, as do Affinity Photo and Photoshop/ACR. Noise reduction and auto settings are much better in all these applications, with Capture One ranking last. I would say tethering, sessions and color correction are the strongest assets of Capture One, with unique controls (more video like) and a strong baseline. The built-in layers are nice but Photoshop is much more powerful combined with Lightroom. In terms of DAM/library management and external plug-ins, Lightroom is also much more powerful and feature rich.

There are no bad tools anymore today, in the right hands all these tools are extremely powerful.

USN Squid - so these photos just prove my point: The Capture One has the most neutral contrasts and color but also the best color. Very good for starting the editing. Then again I doubt these were the default settings for the other applications as I doubt any RAW converter would produce such poor results. Capture One has multiple camera profiles, you can even create your own.

Also do the same with portraits of various skin color and you'll see the difference even better.

People need to get over the Adobe subscription model and just accept that is is by far the best deal in the industry. For the same price as a single Capture One subscription, you get Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Photoshop CC and 1TB of cloud storage. Now that's what I call a great deal (but I would still settle for the $9.99 Photography Plan which I think offers incredible bang for the buck).

Capture One is for the elite commercial photographer. They always were, they just cashed in on a market of over emotional Adobe haters, who now discover that this company is even more greedy and doesn't give a f*** about consumers who want decent software pricing since they are not professionals.

If you buy Capture One Pro and then chose the upgrade License every time you save a lot of money. If you don't need to have the latest software all the time you can upgrade even with an older version and save more money. Then it is cheaper than the Adobe cloud thing and offers much better quality.

That is of course unless you need Photoshop but then again there is Affinity Photo which is more than good enough for non professionals.

@sohus You can use DxO PhotoLab 2 with the DAM of your choice (FastRawViewer is my choice but there are lots of others, including any version of Lightroom or Aperture which supports your camera).

Separating triage from RAW processing and management/tagging of finished exports has been very good for me. It allows me to use the tools of choice and not be dependent on any company at any point in the pipeline. The more you can rely on the OS and the less on a database to manage your photos, the less potential for tears or incompatibility later on in the future.

PS. That said, the marketing arm at DxO PhotoLab believes that DAM is important and are working on adding almost useless DAM features (instead of working more on improving speed and image quality which are their USP).

I wouldn't call FastRawViewer a DAM... not even close. It is more like a quick ingest tool, like Photo Mechanic. I own it by the way and use it to select my best features on my memory card before import to Lightroom or DxO PhotoLab 2.

But no keywording, geo location editing, face detection and many other features I would expect in a DAM product. Perhaps the most critical feature it lacks for me is batch renaming, since neither Fast Raw Viewer nor DxO PhotoLab 2 can do it. So I would need to use something like Exiftool in addition.

phase1 rev.12 might be ok for someone starts fresh but i'll sit tight with my PS6 and Lr 5.7 for a while! the only thing i might upgrade, will be my Lr to v. 6. i have no plan to purchase a new camera except if canon decides to come out with 5DsR II DSLR or an equivalent ML camera, then i may upgrade but not anytime soon!!!!

In October I upgraded to v11 as needed it for the Sony A7iii profile, but for some reason I thought I had paid "extra" as part of a deal that future upgrades would be free... Cant find any wordage about it now, but anyone else think that - or am I confusing whatever "perpetual" means...

If you purchased v11 in the last 30 days, you get v12 for free. Log into your PhaseOne account to look for a new activation code. If you are purchasing the upgrade, you can use code AMBROWE for 10% discount.https://captureone.sjv.io/c/1303261/551643/8798

I think you mistakenly took "perpetual" to mean "Lifetime Upgrades", which is offered by some software vendors.Marketing departments (everywhere) will use every possible little trick to sell their products and to confuse buyers!!!

sh10453 - correct, just looked up on internet what "perpetual software license" means and it does say to use one specific version indefinitely. As a hobbyist I enjoy using the product but beginning to consider its long term value to me - so i can keep this version as long as don't change cameras again.

I never liked its UI, no matter how many times I tried it, and how many versions.I am happy with Corel's PaintShop Pro Ultimate, and the extra software that comes with it. Never had had to pay more than $50 for it. Most of the time the discounted upgrade is less than $30. It comes with Perfectly Clear, AfterShot, and a few other pieces of software.Corel's customer support is excellent, second to none.To each their own, though.

Phase One love to over promise and under deliver in terms of update pricing and legacy customers. I've had so many disappointments with their software no matter how many times I pay for it (LE edition, iView MediaPro). Watch your wallet with these guys! (Adobe is no better with forced subscription, albeit the pricing is more wallet friendly).

That's the beauty of using a perpetual license. I can skip this one, because there is nothing that i really need. My C1pro v11 is working without issues. And the longer i use it, the better bang i'm getting for my buck.

They should've improved the very high ISO NR with this update. But OK, i'll wait until v13, maybe then...

I agree with you, but only conditionally, that this is a good option. But only if:1. You do not intend to upgrade your camera for the some time2. You do not update your operating system (this may or may not be forced on you)3. Or you hope that the next upgrade to your operating system does not break C1

C1 has a great tool set and an ok UI (although frankly it is as irritating at times as Lr, just in different ways). The Luma curve is great, and the new Luma mask tool looks excellent.

But for me the baseline IQ is actually pretty poor, and that kills it. I use mainly Olympus, and I suspect that all Raw processors’ IQ varies by camera type. So maybe it’s just ORFs, but I find that the results very quickly get plasticky and artificial as soon as I even glance at the sharpening or NR sliders. The other apps I use (Lr, Iridient, Exposure X) are all better than C1 in this regard.

C1 is very good at making a strong first impression with it’s default “film curve”, but I’m not convinced it holds up well when you start applying changes. Maybe it’s a different story with 100Mpx PhaseOne files, but I’d advise people downloading the trial to look at bit beyond first impressions before coughing up all that cash.

Yeah, could be the Olympus profiles. I'm using Nikon D750, and the image quality is excellent. One exception: the very high ISO NR quality is a bit worse than LR (while the high and lower ISO NR is better, go figure). I'd rather they adressed that with v12, but alas their priorities seem to be different...

The decision should be based on value the product brings to your clients if you are using it professionally. If you are using it for personal work, consider how much you spend on camera gear and accessories and Capture One starts to look by comparison considering all the amazing capabilities and quality you get.

In all seriousness, I am going to write to them as their marketing spiel is misleading. In practice, most of the styles all look the same and most simply overexpose the image. 95% are unusable with portraits and it takes ages to go through them looking for something remotely okay, so it actually wastes time!

It's true - C1 is expensive. More expensive than it has been too, which is saying something.

But it's VERY good when compared to other software. Whether that's worth the price tag is up to you.

Me? - I've been using C1Pro since v3 (i Think - Somewhere around 2002 anyway) and I still use it pushing through thousands of wedding photographs every year. I trust the software, and for me, there's no better RAW converter for Fuji X-Trans files, and v12 is better, faster, and more feature packed yet again. However, the price is creeping up (£20 +Vat p/m), and Lightroom is practically free with a Photoshop subscription at around £10 p/m, and though LR isn't as good as C1 it's close to 'good enough' by now and it's also easier to use across devices - and that is a thing 2018/19.

This ultimately means having to justify the cost of C1, and I'm going to have to say that when my subscription runs out, I'm going to be migrating everything to Lightroom. I don't want to, but it's getting out of hand.

"migrating" can mean a lot of things... you aren't going to be able to migrate your RAW edits to see exact 1:1 changes from C1 to LR... unless you export as TIFF and import as TIFF and lose the "RAWness".. so, that is out... which means your previews in LR will not match your edits from C1.... really - would only migrate your metadata.. and that can be done in any software that reads it.

@Joe_leads - Let me clarify: I work in sessions. So whenever a job (in my case - weddings) is finished it is exported/processed and sent to the client. That's it. In theory I don't need to see the RAW files again.

So migrating to Lightroom is as simple as opening Lightroom and starting a new session - Migrating in my case means using a different software in my workflow.

Any re-editing I might need to do in the future can be as easy as opening the RAW file in Lightroom and re-editing the RAW file. It makes no difference - it's no task.Not sure how doing this is more expensive as you suggest? And also unsure as to why the flippant 'Do as you like' comment either. Perhaps check your sensitivity with regards to your feelings on DAM software - it really shouldn't matter to you (as is apparent) whether I use Capture One Pro or Lightroom.

@jadot: 120€ year upgrade is some money. And it's a little unfair that "old" version do not get any update (camera support, bug fixes)..

However, working as a pro photographer, 120€ is not much. Moreover, you actually own the software.. IMO, CaptureOne is far ahead as best RAW software around. Only the catalogue is not that good, but it's getting better.

PhaseOne isn't that big. I am please to see them successful and to see that C1 is being develop further.

„Migrating everything to Lightroom“ . Some years ago, I migrated to C1. I never regretted. It offers both better quality and better ethics. I hope they will keep going like this.

@NicoPPC - C1 is probably the best RAW converter out there - I'm not disputing that.I'm saying that it's getting harder to justify the upgrade price when I'm already paying for Lightroom with my Photoshop subscription.

Also Upgrading to C1 12 is now £169 (Not €) for me because I'm on a subscription which is £20 per month +VAT. It's great that I get updates built in to my subscription, but the fact is that when that subscription runs out using Lightroom will cost exactly 0% of that price. That's saving £240 per year.

Working as a Pro Photographer, as you say, often means looking at all of the costs of running a business - It turns out that £240 per year is a lot more than £0. And the 'cost' to image quality is negligible, perhaps even non existent.

It's an incredibly competitive world out there, and money matters to small businesses like mine.

And don't be fooled by Phase One's 'Small' stature in the photography world. They're doing just fine.

Interesting. Why can't you trust Adobe? Have you seen how insanely good Photoshop CC is? You should have a look at it. If Photoshop and Lightroom together for £10 a month isn't the most awesome deal in Photography right now, what is?

I m using PS CS6 since it came out and never feel the need to upgrade. So I do not want to pay any subscription.. I prefer to actually own stuff. Also Adobe could raise or double the subscription and you would have to pay..

to my eyes, Adobe prove them self as untrusty, and they to not develop anymore toward pros..

@NicoPPC - CS6 is way lacking by now - come on - you know this.Upgrading Capture One pro every year for €120, huh? What part of that is not a subscription? Sure, you get to 'keep' the software when you choose to not upgrade, but you'll find it will soon be outdated, much like the outdated CS6 that you 'Own'.

Yes. Adobe Could raise or double the subscription at any time. So could your energy supplier, your mobile phone supplier, your grocery store etc....You kind of have to get on with life.

What have Adobe done to prove that they are untrustworthy?

And your last statement about not developing towards pros; really? Do you want to read that back to me?

Photoshop CC is faster, much better masking, content aware features, 3D features, the list goes on. There's so much more that it can do, and since we're talking about professional software - it's stuff that saves a bunch of time and money.

Why are you locked into a system with Photoshop? No more than say, using a camera, which costs a whole load more than software. In fact it costs a lot less and you're not stuck with it either. Just buy Affinity Photo for £50 and you're good to go. It reads Psd files and works just about as well as your 20% of Photoshop CS6, and it gets updated - something that CS6 doesn't. It's a bit clunky for me - I tried it - but it sounds like it would work for you.

This old trope that Adobe are hoodwinking us all into locking ourselves in to their platform is redundant. Do you have any idea how expensive Photoshop CS was to upgrade every 18 months? More than the subscription, and CC is regularly updated.

The idea that you're stuck having to pay for the software for the rest of your life is moot too. If you're not going to use the software, stop the subscription. Owning the (out of date) software isn't going to be of any use if you don't need it, so what's the problem?

Operating systems change, technology moves forward, and Adobe has to keep up with that, and innovate at the same time. The 18 month upgrade cycle was getting really cumbersome for professionals, and most users were pirating the software because it was so expensive.

I just don't buy the "Don't use Adobe because they're gonna get you in the end" BS

The software is good! It's essential in my line of work, because I shoot digital photography. I stopped printing from negatives years ago. Photoshop is essential in 2018/19 AND IT'S CHEAP, at least when compared with the competition, as well as when compared to what it used to cost.

You're right though - it is a monumental software. That should at least be valued at something

@jadot. I do not need/use this stuff in the new PS. The CS6 is fast enough, and the new one ist not faster (using my old GPU).. so it does not work for me.

I would not update either to an cs7 if it would exist..

I purchased and tried Affinity. Unfortunately, it does not features the basics for my needs (selection, levels, shortcuts are broken, abour 3 time slower than cs6, buggy file management ). I do hope Affinity v2 will do the job so I could totally get ride of Adobe.

@NicoPPC - I don't know you, but it sounds like your needs for either Capture One Pro or Lightroom or Photoshop don't really fit the argument. As a professional user I need the software I use to be up to the minute, so I can save time delivering a high quality competitive service and product to my clients. Time is money etc. Updates, support, innovative new features. All add to and enhance my creative output.

You don't need these enhancements or features, but that doesn't make Adobe particularly evil. It just means that they're not producing software for a price you deem reasonable because you don't want to subscribe to access that software. You don't need Photoshop CC, but you're hacked off that you don't have it because you don't want to pay for it! Therefore Adobe suck?

In the case of C1 Pro - it probably IS still worth the price. Just. But the fact is Phase One will lose my subscription because Adobe have a product that is so very nearly as good, but for less than half the price

It can't be ignored that Phase One have put their prices up this year. By quite a lot. If they hadn't, or if their subscription model was £15 inclusive or £10 inclusive rather than £24 then it would be easier to justify the cost.

Lightroom is something like £20 LESS than C1Pro! And I need Photoshop anyway, so Lightroom is practically free.

Migrating my workflow from C1Pro to the evil Adobe empire where the dark lord Lightroom lives will save me £240 per year.

I've developed photographs in Lightroom. It's not my favourite, but it does the job really well, it's getting better, and faster, and it is more universal, so has better integrations with other software. (I'm talking about online gallery selections importing straight into Lightroom from CSV files, as well as the more obvious filters etc.)

This stuff is real. It's happening, and Phase One are going to lose customers.

What a nonsense. Capture One is very good, yes, but it gets its ass kicked in many areas by Adobe Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab. I would say the only thing it truly excels in is out of the box color, but that is easy to fix in Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab with DCP profiles. They have the worst UI, the worst usability, their catalogs choke on 100.000+ images and their pricing is out to touch with reality (but makes sense if you target working professionals earning tons of money with commercial photography).

In any case, for 90% of people Lightroom is still a better deal. All this revolting against subscription models, but they are cheaper then what CO offers, give you the latest feature and camera updates at 2-month intervals and the Lightroom eco system is unrivalled.

Let me repeat: non commercial photographers should stay away from this software since you don't need it. It's complicated, expensive and in many areas it is behind the competition.

One person decides C1 is now too expensive: fair enough, but how is that informative for the rest of us? We can't see Jadot's work, here. We have no idea what his photography looks like, where his creative aims go, what his quality standards are.

He might be making a *terrible* decision. We already know he's misinformed--he says he plans to migrate to "sessions" in Lightroom! (Lightroom doesn't do "session" workflows.) What light does that shed on anyone else's photographic path?

Honestly, I've always thought it bizarre how little DPReview's editorial staff concerns itself with C1--or RAW conversion alternatives to Adobe, in general. Every time Adobe exhales we get breathless reviews of "the future." But the rest? Maybe a repost here and there.

Meanwhile, there is a massive swath of our profession--particularly high-end commercial work--that runs through C1. Are they all wrong? Why do DPReview's editors presume we aren't interested?

The upgrade price is 159 Euro. Minus 19% VAT minus 10% discount it is 120 Euro. It is an investment that decreases your income tax, so it is actually maybe 80 Euro (per year).

80 Euro p.a. for an important tool, that you use daily, is how much compared to: a professional lens or camera upgrade or the repair of one, or the rent of your studio, the price of your Mac/PC, or how much per (wedding) assignment, or per day of the year? You could even do bi-annual upgrades to half the price.

If you save 2 hours per year, by working faster in CO than in LR, or avoiding a discussion with an unhappy customer, it is even a free software.

@MirashootsNikon - why are you so upset?Couple of points ;I didn't say that C1 is too expensive for what it does. It's the best DAM out here is what I said. I've been using it for 15 years in high end fashion studios, on location, and currently for my wedding business, andwill continue to do so. I said it is getting too expensive for small businesses like me to be able to justify the price, and more so in the light of the fact that LR is practically free, when compared.

You can look at my pictures all you like, but I'm not sure it's going help your rage one way or the other : https://jlphotography.co.uk (or you could have just checked my profile). There are pictures processed by C1, APERTURE, & LR throughout the site. See if you can tell me which ones are which. I know you're cross about everything right now. That's ok - people get very defensive about things like camera brands or software, or iOs Vs Android etc. I will say that you're probably upset about the wrong things. You should check that.I can't comment on DPRs editorial choices. Take it up with them

Just to clarify - I work in Sessions in C1. Each job or session or shoot or wedding is given a new referenced session so I can keep weddings separate. I used catalogues for a while, but they weren't always stable and C19 especially was slow with catalogues... Sheesh.Migrating my workflow into LR is the same thing to me. Each wedding will have its own catalogue, library, session or however the f*** I like to call it, untill I upload, ingest, transfer or copy the next wedding from Photo Mechanic.Did you just try to school me on 'what words different software use'?

jadot - cs6 is really not lacking whatsoever. I’ve used PS professionally for years and the CC version isn’t necessary. It was obviously developed by Adobe to control their revenue. People have been brainwashed into accepting all of these subscription and cloud services. Completely crazy to me especially regarding creative work. I have always had full versions of all of my programs and never use cloud storage - my files aren’t going to be saved on anything except my own storage. People have become lazy and/or don’t know how to setup their own basic server which is very simple.

@badvlad - my 'use case' is actually the basis of this particular thread, and yes, people have found this initial discussion somehow offensive and 'attacked' me (as you put it) and made incorrect assumptions about the way I work, much like you seem to have got upset about my opinion which is merely about what I choose to do with photographic softwares. It's ok though. I don't mind what you think, and I apologise that you and others seem to have become upset enough as to feel like you have to weigh in on a discussion about something on a forum here. You're not really contributing to this particular thread in a positive or indeed relevant way.These threads always turn in to a C1 Vs LR thread until people just want an argument about nothing.I started this thread to discuss a shift in how I use some photographic software, but innevitably it turns into statements and anger about Adobe taking up hell and destroying photography for all.

@Terkwoiz - I think Adobe developed CC to upgrade their revenue plan so they could continue to innovate software and services an eradicate piracy. That seems fair enough, and while the common assumption is that Adobe are monopolising, they're really not. There is competition, for example in their own CS6 for users like yourself, Affinity Photo, And so on and so on.Nobody is being brainwashed into cloud services and subscription models - subscriptions are just relatively new to software is all. Subscriptions and cloud services are actually a really good idea for the less paranoid among us, and enable my business in ways far beyond Lightroom, Adobe, or C1. For example, I use email, One Drive, Google Photos, iCloud, and countless other day to day software, not to mention my mobile phone 'subscription'. There's nothing lazy about it - it's just more efficient in some cases, and it runs alongside my personal server, and personal cloud services just fine.

“Nobody is being brainwashed into cloud services and subscription models.”

To dismiss all critical thinking as paranoia is very black and white and just naive. The fields of design and marketing are all about convincing/manipulating the consumer into making certain choices or buying certain products (usually things they don’t need) on an unconscious level. As someone who’s worked and taught in the design industry for many years this is common knowledge. A lot of people don’t want to look closely at their own habits though and they’ll often dismiss the process as negative or paranoid (as you are doing).

Cloud storage is one of the biggest marketing gimmicks there is and is totally unnecessary. Using personal servers is much more cost effective and anyone running a business should educate themselves as to how to setup and run them.

Let’s not confuse having an opinion and letting that run away with you as “critical thinking”. Your argument is for the sake of arguing. Look. I know people feel the need to drag Adobe’s diabolical plan for evil against all photographers into these kinds of discussions, but it’s really not the point. It rarely is.

I don’t even know what you’re talking about now. You’re the only one going on and on about Adobe. I’ve been talking much more generally about subscription models and cloud storage. Maybe you’re responding to other comments.

@jadot Nobody is "upset". My point was, you are behaving no different from the others and now you are trying to get the moral high ground by explaining how "bad" your interlocutors are, me included. So what did I say that was so horrible, lol? You are coming on a public forum to share your thoughts and workflow, and you are offended that people reply to you sharing their workflow and thoughts? Nobody has an issue with your workflow btw, but with your generalizations. Do I really need to list them?

Adobe CC is super-intrusive. It connects every few minutes with Adobe headquarters via about 25 different methods and URLs. It sends all your actions with Adobe software and probably file names as well back to Adobe. It's permanent spyware. No way.

CS6 while intrusive is nothing like this.

Just based on privacy, without the subscription only issue, only someone who wanted to put cameras in his/her house piped up to the US security organs would ever touch Adobe CC. Agree with you about the phoniness of Phase One's anti-Adobe marketing. DxO PhotoLab and Iridient Developer and FastRawViewer both respect your privacy and price reasonably.

I will leave it up to you to figure out what those companies do. Hint: most of them are marketing trackers, some OWNED BY ADOBE. Also, by default you opt-in to share all use date with Capture One "to improve the software". Read: use it for marketing purposes and customer profiling.

Take off your alufoil hat please. Phase One is not a hair better then Adobe in every possible regard, they even pay to use Adobe's services. If you switch, do so for the features/workflow/UX or perhaps bragging rights that you "ditched Adobe".

"As a professional user I need the software I use to be up to the minute"

I see that BS claim made often here, usually when people get defensive of Adobe. What you're saying is that your previous work wasn't that great because you used software that was lacking a bug fix or new camera profile for a camera you don't even own. That may be true, maybe your previous work sucked, but these minor fixes aren't going to save you.

"Why can't you trust Adobe?"

Who knows... Maybe because they said Lightroom would never go subscription-only..... right before it went subscription-only. ;)

My absolute biggest complaint is that it’s still not easy to (quickly) see which adjustments have been applied to an image. You can reset all adjustments (or view original) and see if any adjustments have been made, but not see a list, processing history or tools that have had edits applied highlighted in the application.

Aperture had this great system where when you made an adjustment in a certain tool it would put a tick on that tool, so you could clearly see (and yes disable it while keeping the adjustment if you like) which tools have had adjustments.

Ultimately if Capture One wants to be *really* pro it should be 100% programmable with a console. Perhaps that’s more than most users want, but at least a processing and history log, universal and per image.

Well, C1 does a terrific job of rescuing my substandard camera work, that's for sure, although there are times when ACDSee's Light IQ tool does a better job of it. I do miss the days when Sony owners got a sweetheart deal on C1 Pro for Sony. I believe it was only $40 when the partnership was first announced. At the time I was trialing Lightroom, but then that C1 deal practically landed in my lap. A gift from the photography gods!

People flee Adobe for 'their greed'. Look who the real greedy company is now. Already stopped using their products when I couldn't update an older license anymore to the Pro Version (I used to have a Sony license too).

BasicColor Input, but it's expensive and extremely limited in features compared to Lumariver. Either way, they both create substandard profiles compared to what they can make for Adobe software. C1 forces a locked base profile, on top of which the ICC profile (what third party software creates) works, so you're somewhat locked into what C1 has already done. One of the many reasons I don't like C1.

Canon M will be the #1 selling mirrorless this year, just wait and see (M50 sales are insane). Now Canon having two mirrorless mounts will be exciting for the future of course... but not in a good way...

It gets interesting when they do the mirrorless versions of the 7D and 80D (there may, or may not, be another DSLR version of each in the meantime). What mount do you choose, as most of the latest and greatest lenses they will want to sell you will be on the RF mount by then (although there will be plenty of EF lenses around for many many years, but the cute new stuff will presumable be RF)?

Well, pretty much every site which reviews lenses or cameras always refer to Lightroom if correction profiles are concerned. One may like or not like Lightroom, alternatives can be subjectively or objectively better and with more features, but this doesn't change the fact that most consider it "the standard".

I've compared DXO and C1 a few times. DXO can't produce as natural skin tones as C1, unfortunately. They tend to be more orange, and "blocky". I was almost going to switch over, but, alas, the skin tones let it down.

@scrollop The trick with DxO PhotoLab is the base profile you use for the rendering. You find this feature in the "Color Rendering" options. For category, I generally choose "Camera Body". I've found the camera profile for Leica M-E, M9, M9-R, M10 preferable for my Canon 5D III and 5DS R files. The colours have deeper reds and a bit more saturation out of the box than the default profiles.

Either that or go and get the Adobe DCP profile for your camera and use it with a portrait or landscape render, depending on what you are shooting. Both methods work well.

Chasing profiles around sounds like a strange way to develop photos initially but once you find some profiles you like, DxO renders exactly to taste. Instead of fighting the colours of each photo individually as in C1, you start from good and have the time to tweak each photo.

C1 is great. Almost perfect, I would say. It's unfortunate that the prices are spoiling the party. I'm prepared to pay for high quality, but with these prices, Phase One is rapidly departing from reality (with the Styles packages they have done so long before).

To be honest, with how Capture One Pro helped me improve in photography, by not [making me angry] me off with lackluster performance or features, I'm TOTALLY ok with price increase. It's not like they force me to upgrade. I can do it when I feel like it, not being forced to pay every single month just to be able to open my own files.

@Nikolai Yes, photography is an expensive thing. I just don't think it makes much sense to compare prices of equipment with prices of software. Prices should be proportional to what you get in return. O well, at some point Phase One will realize that their prices affect their sales. When that happens depends on the wealth and sanity of their target group, I guess.

Way too much expensive as it is now, and they're not that quick adding lenses profiles as well, omitting minor brands. For such a steep price one expect pretty much perfection on everything. My Samyang 35/2.8 for FE isn't officially supported even now. Yeah, they have that "manufacturer profile" feature, which I'm not sure it actually does what it should do.

PascallacsaP Yeah I agree that with price increase that balance might not be obvious as it's for LR+PS combo, but I vividly remember how much time I was wasting doing sets of photos in LR. How I fought with Adobe colors, while having that battle won at start in Capture One Pro.

I work daily in Nuke, Fusion, Resolve, After Effects etc. All of them, Nuke is incomparably more expensive, yet it's starting to show that for small team, Resolve + Fusion + Adobe CC combo is much better choice. What I'm trying to say that even with price increase for Capture One Pro, I'm ok with them as those improvements they implemented in v12 are for me beneficial.

Adobe color is great, especially with their new profiles and if you don't like it is easy to update them to your liking.

Capture One shouldn't cost more then $10/month. as a subscription. For the price they're charging, the value is simply not there for non commercial photographers (I would argue their only true assets is tethered shooting and medium format, and perhaps Fuji X-Trans raw processing).

And yet everyone I convinced to try Capture One Pro, ditched Lightroom not soon after. Photography is mainly my hobby (my first hobby, VFX I turned into job and 15 year career). But even as a hobby, I value my time spent on editing photos as that time can be also spent on other things.

"Buy it once and use it forever" meaning no updates forever (except those small one for the first year before new version comes in). Kinda limiting... If you want to keep up to date with a perpetual license it'll cost you more than the subscription, so you'll have to skip every other year to call it cheaper. I'm thinking of switching to C1 but might be the subscription would be cheaper, especially if I put an eye on it - given I'm not a pro - and skip those months when I won't use it.

Ok, overriding my previous comment: Not for the first two full years, but it gets cheaper on the longer term - if you plan to pay for continuous time. If you like me might get away with not using it for one month here and one there, then maybe not.

Svetoslav Popov - no, but I doubt I'll use the current ones "forever"...

Everyone: Currently a C1 subscription in the U.K. is £180pa or £20pm, the 11-12 upgrade is £149, so will be cheaper to upgrade than have maint once you've eaten into the original purchase price (currently £299, which will be a while). But of course if you buy you can stop paying and still have it. (I actually paid £200 on a deal at a show.)

Oh and I thought I'd heard that they only allow upgrades to the previous version, so can't skip any? Can anyone confirm as I see people saying they will skip a version or two?

Since I got the z6, I need a new editor. I prefer LR but not the subscription model (grant it would be like 2.5 years to break even then LR would be more costly). Currently doing the DNG conversion.

Doing another 1 month trial. (did it before too). C1 is missing history, photo stitching panorama, multi shots. Perspective control is,I don't know, not as easy. It does layering/ masking like the LR adjustment brush.

Why it takes 4 tab/ columns to switch when editing is time consuming compared to LR. The editing seem to have more manual adjustments. The biggest road block is relearning a system, but if you know the concept it isn't too far off from LR. I noticing LR and C1 looking more like nikon capture NX color, something older nikon camera color profile don't didn't have. most of my preset on LR don't work on the z6 liked they did on dslr since nef file used to come in like flat profile.

Spectro@If you do not like the tools selection, then make a custom one that fits your needs. It is easy and has been a feature of C1 since - well forever. Just try and create a customized panel in LR, go ahead try. Maybe the tool tabs are hard for you to understand, but then I think you just might be in submerged in Adobe think.

thanks for your advises you all, still got time on the trial, to see what to buy. Just did a 400 shot shoot, doing most of the editing in lightroom (DNG) for workflow. Working on a few image for C1. I don't sit around and spend hours on a shot, more like 10 mins at most, then copy paste settings, which LR does well since I am familiar.. I do this moonlighting (photography), so it doesn't effect my normal career.

Very poor timing to announce price increase the same week most companies have Cyber Monday deals!

In addition - if you had previously bought C1P for all cameras, you cannot upgrade to Fuji/Sony one. I have upgraded in the second half of October to 11 and the support told me that I cannot go for the Fujifilm version. Capture One 11 Fujifilm was $179 with free upgrade to 12, Capture One 12 for Fujifilm is $219, Capture One 12 for all cameras is $299 and that's exactly how much I'm paying coming from a previous version. Plus, I'm in Europe and I have to pay even higher price plus taxes on top of that.

This is how much they value loyal customers.

Also, once a new version is due for release, the older ones are no longer supported, including bugfixes, cameras and lens profiles. Essentially, I see it as an extortion.

Yep, Phase One just wants to trick you in the tent and once they have you there, drain your wallet for all its worth. I own at least four Phase One software products including C1 Sony Pro and Phase One have always screwed me out of a useful or affordable upgrade path, even taking money for updates to software which they only made worse (iView MediaPro).

If you turn off all color correction, you'll see that each camera still has different colors in the base profile. While you'll get close to Fuji style by applying their ICC profiles to other cameras, it won't be accurate. On some cameras, it may even make certain colors/tones look weird. And even if you use something like the X-T3's profiles on an X-T1, you'll see the result is different than the X-T1's own profiles.

This is one fallacy that many people believe is true about C1: that you can use one camera's colors on all cameras. Unfortunately, C1 missed an opportunity by not making a standardized base profile. Each camera's base profile looks different, and has its own unique ICC profile to get the final result. Minus the copy/paste jobs Fuji sneaks in every now and then...

Very unhappy about the massive price increase for C1 Pro for Sony.I have V10, deliberately skipped V11 as the changes introduced did not excite me.

Upgrade cost in Australia is now $189!! This is getting on to nearly 2 times more than I paid 2 years ago. Basically the new pricing will turn Sony users away, they will make do with the free version and use work arounds.

Timing of the C1 announcement is not good as several competitors are offering products at under $100. Methinks it is time to look at the alternatives.

Oh and don't get me started about the so-called Perpetual Licence which in reality is just for V12 and maintenance releases only. Talk about a misleading description!

With Code AMBC1BLOG you get 10% discount. I checked this morning and this discount code is valid for Australia. I'm paying $154.80 AUD for the upgrade. This is the code from AlexonRaw.com who has great videos and tips about Capture One

Coming from LR6 (standalone) I will say I was not super impressed upon initially loading the 30-day trial. When I realized I could move the adjustments panel from the left over to the right, drop the strip from the right to the bottom, and then remove and add modules into the adjustments panel I started to feel a bit more at home. That is, it has a somewhat familiar look to that of LR now.. well.. somewhat.

But what really confuses me is the importing and cataloging system. This system seems kludgy to me and really difficult to understand and thus manage.

I'm fairly convinced about the processing but not so much the cataloging. Oh, and many Tamron lenses aren't showing for me in the profiles. Basic ones such as the SP 45mm f/1.8, 85 f/1.8, 70-210 f/4, and 100-400 f/variable are not available. That's pretty unsat imo... it isn't like they were just released.

I'm still on LR6 too. I'm itching jump ships but have concerns. I make very extensive use of the keywording hierarchies such as Flora>Family>Genera>Species>Subspecies. If I can't easily and seamlessly translate the hierarchical structure I dare not switch. It would take 6 months to rebuild. I still need to work on this.

Hierarchy will be the same in ALL programs that fully support XMP namespaces... export your keywords into all your images (or sidecards) and C1 will import and display them 100% the same.

Not sure what is confusing about the import/catalog process... it is basically the same as LR... you can setup develop presets to apply.. metadata to apply and choose which images to import. You can import new images from a folder already imported... You can have 1 catalog, 10 catalogs... or no catalogs (sessions). There are hundreds of videos from C1 and others on Youtube and C1's website that explain and take you through the process....

fuego6Thanks for that. It is reassuring. I'll have to spend time going through those videos then back up everything. I have a morbid fear of pressing a button then finding because of some obscure quirk I end up with a scrambled eggs keyword hierarchy.

Unfortunately it's impossible to just use C1 as a RAW developer. No matter what you do, you end up tied in session knots and a bunch of unnecessary folders created on your hard drive. It's just not a very flexible program and plays badly with others.

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